So, despite the rocky start described below,
Looney Labs and Covenant Communications are now on very good
terms and we are happy to sell their version of our game in
our webstore!

Updated: Sept 29th 2004

My heart is warmed. I (Kristin) got a call and a sincere apology
from a Mr. Evans - the COO of Covenant Communications yesterday.
He said that he read my letter
and that he was extremely sorry, and that they would destroy the
several thousand decks of "Search, Ponder, and Play!"
that they have left in their warehouse.

We talked for a long time, and it was a good conversation -
and I am hopeful that he will come back and say he can pay us
a royalty, instead of pulping the decks. (He said he needed to
check with his attorney, so please keep your toes crossed!) He
mentioned a royalty rate that they have paid on other games before
(which was less than I might have asked for but not less than
Andy would be willing to accept) so I'm sure we can agree on the
number.

I tried to explain how
important things like recycling are to us, and how much better
we would feel about things if we could just accept their apology
and become friends so that they could continue selling the decks
and pay us a small royalty for the game design.

If you contacted this company in the last few weeks about this
issue - please email
them again and thank the people in charge at Covenant Communications
for being good people. I'm so very very glad that they got the
letter I posted on the web last week, instead of the letter that
our lawyer would have written (like lots and lots of people were
advising us to do.)

Thank you Covenant Communications for not being the kind of
company who would do a thing like this!

posted Sept 23rd 2004

We ordered a copy of the game "Search, Ponder, and Play!"
last
week, after hearing from a fan that it was a direct rip-off
of our game Aquarius.
We got a copy in the mail this week - and he sure was correct.
Needless to say, this makes us very unhappy.

It's every game
inventor's worst nightmare: another company has stolen and
published my idea!

Intellectual property theft has been committed against myself
and Looney
Labs by a company called Covenant Communications. Their product,
entitled "Search, Ponder, and Play!" is an obvious and
direct rip-off of my game, Aquarius. The two games differ only
in cosmetic and superficial ways. Theirs is dated 2003; mine was
first published in 1998.

Covenant Communications seems to believe they can avoid the
question of copyright violation by renaming everything and using
different artwork (which I might add, they take pains to give
credit for). However, it's obvious to anyone who's played Aquarius
that alternate artwork doesn't make it a different game. It's
still my game design even if you call them Search Cards instead
of Goal Cards.

The theft of my design is so complete that even the card counts
are exactly the same. There are the same numbers of each type
of card and the same 3 copies of each of the 5 actions, which,
while renamed, all work exactly the same way as do mine. (click for a larger 100k picture)

It's the exact same game. The only differences, besides the
purely cosmetic artwork and name changes, are a starting hand
of 4 cards (instead of 3) and the inclusion of a scorepad with
an added goal of playing multiple rounds until you've won with
all 5 goals.

Needless to say, I'm extremely angry about this. Whereas I'm
receiving a handsome royalty from
a German company for each copy they sell of the German
version of Fluxx, I am not even credited as the creator of
the Mormon version of Aquarius.

In Germany, where parlor games are played much more commonly
than here, the role of the game designer is held in great regard.
The Germans have realized that art and theme are secondary design
considerations, and that a game's real measure is in the quality
of its gameplay. The designers' names therefore are always placed
prominently at the top of the gamebox, so that the consumer can
choose a game based in part on their opinion of that designer's
track record. Seeing that a game was designed by Reiner Knizia
is like seeing that a book was written by Ernest Hemingway.

The Germans understand a simple fact that the Mormons at Covenant
Communications are trying hard to ignore: that this is plagiarism,
plain and simple. It's equivalent to stealing someone's novel,
renaming it, doing a search-and-replace on the main character's
names, and then publishing it as your own, using new cover art.
It's like they stole my car, repainted it, changed the license
plates, and put a "For Sale" sign on the window.

Please boycott this product and consider sending the company
a letter telling them that what they are doing is wrong, and that
it's particularly hypocritical given the religious theme of their
publications.

Also, please consider buying a copy of Aquarius instead - it's
printed in America, not China. Aquarius is available in game stores
all over the country (check
our roster for a store near you) or from our
online store. You can even play
it online.